Pioneers Make Every Second Count in D3
March 9, 2013
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
YPSILANTI – Rarely has a fifth-place finish meant more than it did Saturday afternoon to East Grand Rapids at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 Finals at Michael H. Jones Natatorium on the campus of Eastern Michigan University.
East Grand Rapids went into the final event – the 400 freestyle relay – needing to finish fifth to guarantee the overall meet championship. A sixth-place finish paired with a first place by Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood would have left East Grand Rapids in second place.
Incredibly, Cranbrook-Kingswood tied Bloomfield Hills Lahser for first place in the final relay, and East Grand Rapids got the fifth-place finish it needed to win the Final championship by four points (278-274). It was the 10th championship for East Grand Rapids, which won the Division 3 title in 2008 and 2010 and won the Class B-C-D title every year from 1976-82.
“This is cool. Very cool,” said East Grand Rapids coach Butch Briggs, who has coached the Pioneers to all 10 MHSAA championships. “We had to hold fifth place (in the 400 freestyle relay), and they did a great job.
“They haven’t quit all year. We won our conference meet by a half-point, so these kids have been tough all year long.”
For a while, it looked like Cranbrook- Kingswood would not pull off first place in the 400 freestyle relay. The Cranes were third for the majority of the race before Matthew Liu finished the final 100 yards in stirring fashion. Earlier, Liu had won the 100 butterfly in 51.60 seconds.
Cranbrook-Kingswood came into the 400 freestyle with just the sixth-fastest prelim time of the eight finalists, but sliced 3.47 seconds off that time, finishing in 3 minutes, 12.99 seconds.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Cranbrook-Kingswood coach Karl Hodgson said. “They all dropped about the same amount of time across the board. It was a total team effort.
“We knew we had an outside shot. We were like a 3:21 coming in, and we end up going 3:12. That’s crazy fast for us.”
East Grand Rapids, meanwhile, was seventh after the first 50 yards and stayed between fourth and sixth after that. The Pioneers were fifth when Kurt Swieter dove into the water for the final 100 yards. He knew what he had to do.
“That last relay, we knew if Cranbrook was to get first, we couldn’t fall back, so I just went into that relay with the mindset that we were going to win,” said Swieter, a junior who was joined on the relay team by sophomore Jack Filion and freshmen Nathan Hein and Andy MacGregor. “I knew that we were fifth, and I knew that Cranbrook was moving. I saw them swimming in before I dove, and I wasn’t going to let it go.”
East Grand Rapids senior Matt Hooper had just successfully defended his individual MHSAA championship in the 100 breaststroke when the 400 freestyle relay was held, and all he could do was watch the drama unfold.
“Our guys were super stoked,” Hooper said. “We had two freshmen on that relay, and to see them step up like that was awesome. I believed in them from the start. We have a really fast freshman class, and they really got it done. We couldn’t have done it without them for sure.
“Our butterflier really stepped up big, and our backstroker was a full second faster than (Friday). We all had to get together and do it as a team, and that was the big thing, the team. Everyone showed up, and everyone performed well.”
Hooper certainly showed up and performed well. He helped the Pioneers win the first event – the 200 medley relay – and then not only defended his title in the breaststroke but broke the LP Division 3 meet record for the second day in a row after breaking it on Friday. Hooper’s winning time was 56.12 seconds.
“It was nerve-wracking,” he said. “I was telling my coach I think this meet was truly one of the only times I can say my heart was beating out of my chest before a race. I couldn’t swallow before the race.”
In the 200 medley relay, Hooper swam the breaststroke as East Grand Rapids won in 1:35.58 – breaking the school record set by the Pioneers two years ago with Hooper as a member of the relay.
Hooper’s day ended with a team championship, an individual championship complete with a meet record, and a relay championship, also complete with another meet record.
“It’s a really big honor to be on a team with these guys and to help out Coach Briggs get one more state championship before I’m done,” Hooper said. “It’s a heck of a way to go out. I couldn’t have asked for a better season or a better four years.”
There were several other outstanding efforts in addition to Hooper and East Grand Rapids. Parker Cook-Weeks of Holland Christian repeated as champion in the 500 freestyle in 4:38.27 and also won the 200 freestyle in 1:41.21. David Alday of Chelsea won the 100 freestyle in 46.85 and the 200 individual medley in 1:52.88, narrowly missing the LP Division 3 meet record of 1:52.80.
Alday won both of his races in come-from-behind fashion as he passed the leader in the final 25 yards.
“That’s how I like to do it,” Alday said, “lay back and see what I can do late in the race. In the last 25 (of the individual medley) I didn’t breathe once. I just stuck my head down.”
The victory in the individual medley was especially gratifying to Alday, who was limited last year after breaking his back when, as he put it, “I had a large kid jump on me.” Alday was limited to just freestyle events at last year’s MHSAA Final.
Cook-Weeks had a different challenge in winning his MHSAA titles. In both races, he had to battle his good friend Swieter, who swam the final leg of the 400 freestyle for East Grand Rapids. Cook-Weeks beat him by nearly a second in the 200 freestyle, and then the two had a virtual match race in the 500 freestyle as they finished within 1.35 seconds of each other but nearly five seconds ahead of the third-place finisher.
“Kurt and I are longtime friends, and we always have a battle and stay with each other,” Cook-Weeks said. “Kurt’s a great swimmer, no doubt about that, and we stuck together and fought it out. It was an iron man race.
“We just battled, and the last 50 I tried kicking it in because I just knew that I could do more. I wanted to make my parents, my family and my coaches proud and show that I can defend my title in the 500.”
Ollie Smith of Milan won the 50 freestyle in 21.04, and freshman Joey Puglessi of Grand Rapids Catholic Central took the 100 backstroke in 52.75. Detroit Country Day won the 200 freestyle relay in 1:26.61.
In 1-meter diving, Marshall sophomore Henry Swett outdistanced his nearest competitor by more than 20 points as he repeated as champion. Swett, who said he has trained on the trampoline with his brothers, said becoming a four-time MHSAA champion is one of his goals – but it comes with a price as he seemingly is the favorite whenever he competes.
“It puts more pressure on me, but I kind of like it that way,” said Swett, whose total of 431.20 fell just short of his winning total of 435.65 a year ago.
PHOTOS: (Top) East Grand Rapids' Matt Hooper swims to his third straight MHSAA championship in the 100-yard breaststroke Saturday. (Middle) The Pioneers celebrate their first team title since 2010. (Click to see more at HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Talented Pioneer Dominates with Depth, Extends Team Title Streak to 4
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
March 9, 2024
ROCHESTER — Just when it seemed like the dynasty that is the Ann Arbor Pioneer boys swim & dive program couldn’t come up with another method for winning a state title, the Pioneers did so at Saturday’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals at Oakland University.
It was something Pioneer head coach Stefanie Kerska said she hadn’t even seen from her team before.
“We didn’t win a single event, and we didn’t win a single relay,” Kerska said.
But that didn’t stop Pioneer from winning a fourth straight title, using its supreme depth to collect a meet-best 275 points.
Saline was the runner-up with 245 points, edging third place Detroit Catholic Central’s total of 243.5. Northville (226) and Zeeland (136) rounded out the top-five.
“For every single person to play their part and do their job, it’s just a really special feeling for this team,” Kerska said.
If Pioneer managing to finish first despite not winning an event was not deflating enough for opponents, it may be even worse for them to consider the Pioneer dynasty looks like it will continue for the foreseeable future – with its longest streak of six straight Finals titles won from 1977-82 potentially approached by this group.
“Ten of 17 had never been here before,” Kerska said. “Our 400 free relay was made up of freshmen and sophomores. We are a fairly young and inexperienced team.”
Individually, two standouts ruled the day.
The first was Oxford senior Olin Charnstrom, who first followed up a fourth-place finish in the 100 freestyle from last year by winning the event Saturday in a time of 45.03.
“I really have a drive for freestyle,” Charnstrom said. “Last year, I had a really bad prelims and a good finals. This year, I made sure to come in and leave nothing behind.”
A short time later, Charnstrom took the pool again and defended his title in the 100 backstroke, winning that event in a time of 48.10.
“It feels great,” said Charnstrom, who will swim at Wayne State. “My progress from my freshman year to now, every single year I’ve gotten better and put in more work. It’s so nice to see all that pay off.”
The other standout was Zeeland junior Owen Stevens, who defended his titles in both the 200 individual medley and the 500 freestyle.
Stevens, who has committed to Louisville, swam the IM in a time of 1:49.68 and the 500 in a time of 4:27.48.
“This year I came in with more expectations,” Stevens said. “There was some pressure there. It was a little nerve-wracking. But I had a lot of fun, and it was some good swimming. I felt better about the 500 more than the 200 IM. I was little off from where I wanted to be in the 200 IM. But it was still a very good time I dropped from last year.”
Other individual winners were Catholic Central senior Luke Mychalowych in the 200 freestyle (1:37.98), Northville senior Phillip Zhavoronkov in the 50 freestyle (20.65), Rockford senior Julian Cardenas in diving (537.95 points), Rochester senior Lucas Hosch in the 100 butterfly (49.80) and Brighton senior Luke Newcomb in the 100 breaststroke (54.56).
Catholic Central also won the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:32.61 and the 200 freestyle relay in 1:24.61. Holland West Ottawa won the 400 freestyle relay in 3:08.65.
PHOTOS (Top) The championship heat of the 50-yard freestyle, including Ann Arbor Pioneer’s Henry Baumhover and Christopher Leuciuc, launches Saturday. (Middle) Oxford’s Olin Charnstrom swims to a repeat championship in the backstroke. (Below) Zeeland’s Owen Stevens swims to the win in the 500 freestyle. (Click for more from High School Sports Scene.)